Wet Nursing: Time to review an old tradition?

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I have thought for some time about how formula fed babies will fare in a SHTF scenario. What if formula has already been looted from the store or destroyed by fire or a major natural disaster? In a time of chaos and collapse, infants are already vulnerable, and especially so without a reliable source of nutrition.

Maybe it’s time we rethink an old custom, wet nursing, or breast feeding another’s child.

Yep, I went there.

This age-old practice may be the best way for a new generation to survive in a worst case scenario.

In the “olden” days (until the late 1800’s), wealthy families often employed a wet nurse, or lactating mother, to nurse their children in place of themselves. In high society, they left the child raising to others. The child went from the wet nurse to the nanny, the tutor, and then on to boarding school.

Sometimes (many times), women of all social classes died during childbirth or shortly thereafter, leaving a hungry baby who needed to be fed. A lactating family member would step up and take the infant to her own breast. If family wasn’t an option, someone else would step in to be the wet nurse.

Wet Nursing in Modern Times

I saw a friend of mine do this about 20 years ago. I will call her “Jane”, as in Jane Doe. Needless to say, at that time I was shocked to see her nursing a child that wasn’t her own! Jane was on maternity leave and she was helping out a colleague who recently went back to work part time. The colleague’s baby was also being breastfed, but mom was detained at work, so Jane asked for permission to nurse her friend’s child, and permission was granted. The result was a happy, comforted baby and a happy mom.

Wow. That opened my eyes. It’s actually a good idea. If women chose to do this, their schedules could be more flexible. If you are a working mom, but don’t want a sitter to formula-feed your baby, you might try to find someone willing to be a wet nurse.

Benefits

You probably already know at least some of this, but here are a few benefits of breastfeeding/wet nursing over formula.

1. Your baby gets high quality human milk meant for a human baby.

2. It’s the perfect temperature, no risk of scalding with hot formula.

3. It hasn’t been “tainted” at a factory or on the store shelf, although you will need to be sure the wet nurse doesn’t eat or drink anything your baby can’t have. (Some babies get colicky if mom has too much dairy, etc.)

4. Shelf products are subject to “recall” if an ingredient was missing or the nutrient proportions were incorrect, among other things.

5. It’s easily digestible.

6. Moms can pump and save their own milk, so as not to lose their own supply.

Concerns with Wet Nursing

There are concerns I have with this as well. First and foremost, how well can you really know a person? Do you know their health history? Any recent blood tests? Do they have any communicable diseases? How can you be sure YOUR child is adequately fed? There’s no empty formula cans to prove it. What about cleanliness? Is the wet nurse cleaning herself between feeding babies? If one child has a cold, the other may get it too. What kind of compensation are you willing to pay for this service?

But what if there wasn’t a choice? Perhaps a new mom has no choice but to return to work and pumping and storing milk at work isn’t practical. Or perhaps a mom is having difficulty producing enough milk to sustain her baby and now has to use formula. Then, the unthinkable happens: a major catastrophic event, the infant needs formula, and there is none to be had. Heaven forbid it requires a special-ordered one! If your baby relies on formula and you are unable to get more for any reason, you could be in real trouble.

Both nursing and non-nursing moms need to be prepared if this happens. Nursing moms need to be willing to help out others, and non-nursing moms need to be willing to accept that help – and both sides need to be gracious about it. It will undoubtedly be a difficult and potentially uncomfortable situation, at least initially, for everyone.

The Potential Wet Nurse’s Point of View

The following comment is from a woman who always felt she was “designed” (for lack of a better word) to be a wet nurse:

I know many women have difficulty producing enough milk, and I’m sure that’s always been the case, so I’m going to explain more from my side – having TONS of milk! If you never had enough milk, then the idea of women being wet nurses – producing enough milk to feed MORE than one child – could seem absurd to you.

When my son was in the NICU, he needed 20 ccs of milk each time he nursed. I was told to pump for 20 minutes each side, so I did, but I could easily have pumped for longer. After a few days, I realized the length of time was to help stimulate milk flow because most moms needed it. I certainly didn’t! I pumped 12 ounces every 2-3 hours (my son needed 20 ccs) and was neverempty! At one point, I hand expressed the 20 ccs he needed into a bottle because it was faster and easier than going somewhere to pump. I ended up donating 150 ounces to a milk bank.

Feeding an extra infant (or two) would have been easy as can be, and (truthfully) a physical relief for me.

Skills and Assets

In survival groups, members are asked what skills they possess. I would ask what skills or services can they offer? A lactating mother is an asset. She can make the difference between life and death.

Children are a precious commodity. We need them to replenish our numbers, give us joy, and assist us in our latter years. If someone has a child that needs a wet nurse, that is a job only a lactating mother can do. Formula may not be available at any price. It’s also something a lactating mother can barter for money, supplies, or trade.

In our modern, high-tech society, the relative sterility of formula seems “safe” while the relative messiness of a wet nurse seems, well, messy and unsanitary. The benefits of breast milk/nursing over formula have been discussed a lot in recent years, but we haven’t quite reached the point that we have re-embraced wet nurses as a valid part of child-rearing.

Perhaps this is because it is something that simply feels like a historic relic of an upper class that didn’t want to raise their own children, but I encourage you to keep an open mind about this. Weigh the pros and cons for yourself.

As for me, I think it’s an idea whose time has come…again. And this time, it’s not just for the rich, and it’s definitely not for those who want to outsource raising their child.

Mary Blandford

Mary is a graduate from Purdue University with an Associates in Applied Science. Her work experiences in Nursing have included surgery, dialysis, prison and drug rehab nursing. Mary is a wife, mom, and grandmother who has a keen interest in self-reliance. She enjoys sharing her experiences and hopes to help others who are interested in this lifestyle.

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Comments

Back when I was nursing my second child (30 + years ago!), my pediatrician recommended that I become a wet nurse after he saw a bit of the thick, rich stuff in my son’s mouth that he had just “spit up”. Never did become one, but I can see where it would be important in certain situations.

Now I have a small herd of dairy goats and have provided goat’s milk to more than one momma who was weaning their baby from the breast. I’ve heard that it is quite similar to human breast milk and could work in a pinch!

I have always said that I would nurse my sisters’ babies if they ever needed it, and I have a girlfriend who I would ask to nurse mine if it was needed.
Several years ago our whole area was out of electricity for several days. was so glad to be breastfeeding and couldn’t help wondering how all the moms with formula were doing. I’m sure it added an extra layer of stress to that time. A friend of mine was giving away frozen breastmilk to moms who ran out of formula.
Some good things to think about here.

nursed my nephew ( 3 mos.) one time when my sister didn’t return from shopping on time , it seemed very strange , his latch was odd to me and when my 10 year old nephew walked in and saw me he looked very disapproving , I thought he was going to all the police !! He asked sternly if his mother knew about this? I assured him it was her idea, but he was not happy about it. My daughter refused to be nursed by my sister at a later similar situation when she was about 6 months old. She looked disapproving that time !! LOL. I think you would have to start them young or express milk.

I was under the impression that wet-nursing as a profession was illegal in the United States, though I don’t know to what extent that is due to suspected health reasons (ease of transmitting disease, etc) and to what extent it is due to abuses from the past. I understand that in the antebellum South, for example, there were instances where slave women nursed their masters’ children while their own babies starved. Obviously there is more to wet nursing than that.

My cousin was wet nursed when he was born premature and his own mother could not. This woman, a minority, literaly saved his life. This was in the forties and he visited her as an adult until she passed away. He became a very wealthy Doctor, but he never forgot her. After the SHTF it might well be the gift of life as it was for him.

A friend of mine and I cross-nursed each other’s baby a time or two. I have another friend who was unable to nurse her last child due to health problems that required medication that would cross the placental barrier. She found two women, with whom she was friends, who were willing to nurse him for her. He lived with one woman for a few days and then the other woman for a few days. It felt strange to my friend to have her baby not even live with her, but she was very thankful for gracious friends who would help her child have a great start in life. I am glad to report that he is a happy and healthy teenager now.

I cross-nursed the babies of a couple of friends of mine when they ran late while I was babysitting their children. (Obviously, we agreed on this ahead of time, in case it was needed.) It was huge for those babies, much better than giving them formula or letting them go hungry. It’s just common sense, as long as everyone agrees and you know the people and trust their word about their health conditions.

As the article notes, babies who are fed formula are at particular risk in a disaster because of the lack of clean potable water to make formula and the difficulty in sterilizing bottles. That said, I also always kept a pack of ready-made formula around when I was nursing my children in case I became unavailable in a disaster and no one was around who could cross-nurse.

This is really interesting, but technically it might work well only with a newborn baby who had no or very few bottle feedings. After taking bottles for a few weeks (or months), the baby risks a “nipple/bottle” confusion. Getting milk from the bottle requires less “effort” than from the breast or, in any cas, a different “technique”. The suckling is different. If you feed the baby with bottles (whichever the contents of the bottle: formula or pumped human milk) after a while s/he may “forget” how to get milk from a breast. This is why it is so difficult to continue breastfeeding for some women: because the baby has been given a bottle, or two, or more (sometimes without the mother’s consent!)… and s/he no longer knows how to suckle. I agree on the principle, but I don’t know if this would work well in the case of an emergency with just any baby. ALso, not all women produce so much milk. Some mothers struggle just to feed their own child and may not have enough supply for another one (esp. in cases of food deprivation, stress, etc.) La Leche League has some information about wet nursing and cross nursing: http://www.llli.org/llleaderweb/lv/lvjulaug95p53.html

My best friend and another friend and I all had babies at the same time. The two of them went to do groceries while I babysat… and wouldn’t ya know, all three babies got hungry at the same time!! The two other women are from a very family-focused baby-friendly culture so I just stuck the babies on the boob in turn and let the ladies know when they got back that I’d already fed them. THERE WAS NEVER A DOUBT in their minds that I would breastfeed their children if they started crying! We should all be focused on the baby and less about our own squeamishness. I would be all for reviving the practice of wet-nursing!
Well…. maybe not at 2 a.m. 😉

I have a friends whos having problem with her milk supply and asking me to wet nurse her newborn. I read that wet nursing/cross nursing comes with advantages and risks (I read it here http://mybabyfeeding.net/wet-nursing/ ). I haven’t decided to do it, but since it’s my own friend I try to help her as much as I could do.

Now, I’m about 70% saying yes to her. It’s because my mother used to wet nurse other person other than me and it seemed both of my mother and that person (the person is 30 right now) doing okay nowadays. Thanks for your article that gives another view to this.

My son is 16 months old and has never taken a bottle. Lucky for me I’m a SAHM and can nurse him whenever he wants. I also do some babysitting and have had other babies with the same issue. I told mom of she didn’t mind then I didn’t mind feeling the babies. I can’t just let them go hungry. I say feed all the babies! It’s been a blessing to me to be able to help feed hungry babies and I know it’s been a blessing to the babies and the moms! I thought it was going to be strange bit it wasn’t at all. I thought it was weird how it didn’t feel weird at! I’ve fed 4 other babies besides my own and got asked to help out with another today. Mom is having health and supply issues and and baby has had the issues and other health issues and can’t get. Good latch on a bottle but no issues breastfeeding. So of course I will help. More people should!